Return to Sender
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: When a mysterious girl arrives abruptly in New Ninjago City, things become complicated when it is revealed that she is Lloyd's future daughter. The Digi-Lord now wants to use her to gain control over the Gold Ninja's power. Can the ninja get her back to her own time before things go horribly wrong? Set in Rebooted around episode 31, bordering AU lines with shades of headcanon. R
1. Chapter 1

A bright flash of light emerged in the center of New Ninjago City. As the light dimmed, it was apparent that a girl had appeared there. Slowly, she got up and looked around. The light had attracted the attention of many of the city's denizens, and they formed around this new girl as if she was the byproduct of an earthquake that created a sinkhole. If anything, the ground around her suggested that she had landed like a comet to the ground, created a crater.

Among the citizens to crowd around the girl was Cyrus Borg.

"What is going on here?" he asked as PIXAL helped him navigate his wheelchair through the crowd. When they saw the girl laying there, PIXAL gave an unintentional gasp.

"What's the matter dear?" Cyrus asked his creation.

"She's..." the android started to say, but was wary.

"Who is she?" Cyrus asked, turning to look PIXAL in the eye, but the android refused to give him eye contact.

"We need to call the ninja." the android finally said. Cyrus looked at PIXAL, confused as to why the android seemed to be uncomfortable, but he agreed.

. . .

The ninja gathered around the girl as if she was dead and they were simply paying their respects. Cyrus and PIXAL had moved the girl to Cyrus's headquarters in the center of New Ninjago City and had placed her on a mat. There she was sleeping rather peacefully, not that it stopped the Ninja, Nya, and Garmadon from staring at her. Something about her seemed familiar, but it was nothing that anyone could place a definite finger on.

Kai in particular felt a strong connection to the stranger, and it was a feeling that extremely annoyed him, but he could not find a way to act on it.

Suddenly, the girl made a noise of coming to, and started to sit up. Everyone backed up a bit from the stranger as she used one hand to prop herself up, and used the other to hold her head.

"Alice..." the girl mumbled, "Next time, don't press the red button. Okay?"

No one answered her, so she looked up and saw the ninja for the first time. For a moment, she just stared. Slowly, her face started to pale as if she was going to faint. Her gaze in particular fell onto Garmadon.

"Who... who are you?" she asked Garmadon, then she looked at the others, "Where am I?!"

For a moment, no one was quite sure how to respond. How could this girl not know who they were, their names were known in practically every household after the defeat of the Overlord.

As if in an effort to distract everyone from the confusing matter, Zane's falcon came through an open window and hovered around the group.

"Crow!" the girl said happily, forgetting the situation at hand and possibly her age as she started reach toward the falcon as if it were an old friend. The robotic bird looked at her and perched on her shoulder in a sort of compliance, although it had been addressed by the wrong terminology. Everyone then exchanged a confused look.

"Perhaps you are mistaken," Zane told her, "Our robotic friend is a falcon, not a crow."

"I know." she said, snuggling the falcon. "I've just always called him that. Haven't we had this discussion before Zane?"

This earned her an odd look from everyone. Since when did this child know the falcon any way? And what made her think that they already knew her? Better yet, how did she know Zane's name without introductions?

"How do you know my name?" Zane asked her curiously. "We have not met before."

The girl made a face, and ceased snuggling with the robotic bird.

"I know all of you." she admitted, looking at all of them. Her gaze again stopped at Garmadon. "Some of you however... I've just never... known."

"What do you mean?" Zane inquired.

"She's from the future." PIXAL then said, speaking up. Everyone's reaction was unanimous; pure surprise and shock.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone turned to look at PIXAL.

"Is this what you have been hiding from us?" Zane asked. PIXAL nodded.

"When I first saw her, I ran a biological scan on who she could be." PIXAL told everyone. "Half of her DNA was that of... the Green Ninja."

Everyone's attention turned to Lloyd, who in turn started to flush in a fabulous shade of pink while growing pale at the same time.

"There has to be a mistake." Kai spoke up. "Lloyd is too young to have any kids. We all are, in retrospect."

"Understood." PIXAL agreed. "And it would seem paradoxical, but it was then the scanner picked up something interesting. Her body is a perfect holder of the element of Creation, such as Lloyd's body is the perfect holder for the power of the Golden Dragon."

"But how does that make her Lloyd's kid?" Cole asked, growing more suspicious as the topic went on.

"Only one other human in the history of Ninjago was able to contain the element of Creation within them without consequence." PIXAL told them.

"The First Spinjitzu Master..." Garmadon said softly.

"That's my great-grandfather." the girl said. "That time machine Alice and I found at the junkyard must have sent me back in time. In which case, I need to get back to the future before something goes horribly wrong with this time line. There's this little thing called the 'butterfly effect' that I'd like to ignore, so far I don't think it's going to work very well."

"Wait, wait, wait," Jay spoke up, "Who's this 'Alice' you keep talking about, and why on EARTH is there a time machine at the junkyard?"

"_Will_ be a time machine at the junkyard." the girl corrected, almost playfully.

"You knew what I meant!" Jay retorted. The girl couldn't help but snicker a bit, suggesting that she teased Jay like this normally. Her body movement when snickering causing the falcon on her shoulder to get off of her. It went to Zane's shoulder next, and made itself quite comfortable there.

"Alice is my friend." the girl then explained. "She's a robot, sort of like you two," (she pointed to Zane and PIXAL when she said this) "But she can age... sort of."

"A robot that can age..." Cyrus said, almost to himself. "Fascinating..."

"She's pretty cool." the girl agreed. "It's kind of weird seeing her shed her 'skin' when she gets too tall for it, but it's kind of nice having a friend that grows up with me."

"Amazing." Cyrus said. "Was this Alice created to be a playmate for you?"

"I'm not sure." the girl admitted. "I've known her since I was seven, but no one really said if she was designed for me, or created to be a child for Zane and PIXAL."

With this idea, the Droids gave a look of confusion and embarrassment. Meanwhile, in a hint of the future, Kai's curiosity of how drawn he was to the girl got the better of him.

"Who are you?" he asked, almost snapping at her. "What is your name? If you're so open to tell us about what happens in our futures, why you can't even bother to tell us what your name is?!"

The girl looked at Kai as if he had told her that she was going to die by his hand for no apparent reason. It was a rather scorned expression that held a rather heart breaking undertone to it, as if there was more to her relationship with him than what anyone realized.

"My name is Minerva." she said, keeping her eyes locked with his.

"Wise." Garmadon said, turning to Lloyd. "Not a bad choice Lloyd."

"Thanks... I guess..." Lloyd said back, not quite sure how to respond. Lloyd looked at Minerva, then started to walk over to her. Minerva turned to look at him as well. Slowly, as her eyes locked onto his, her eyes started to become glassy in an attempt to hold back tears. It was as if she hadn't seen him in ages. In a ping of revelation, Lloyd recognized the look she had as one he once adorned himself.

"I leave you... don't I?" he asked.

"Of all the things I can say, I don't think I can tell you that or not." she told him. Lloyd nodded and slowly raised his hand to touch her cheek. He knew. She didn't have to tell him anything, he already knew by the look in her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"A time machine, eh? Shouldn't be that hard, I've managed to build worse." Cyrus said as he sketched out blueprints for a time machine that could send Minerva forward in time.

"Will it take long?" Minerva asked, looking of the scientist's shoulder curiously.

"With the right tools and help, it should be completed in a day's time." Cyrus told her, rather happily and proud.

"What will I do in the mean time?" Minerva asked.

"You'll have to come with us." Lloyd told her, walking over to where she and Cyrus were. "We can't be here too long or the Nindroids might attack here, and it would only slow the progress of the time machine down."

Minerva bit her lower lip, but she understood the importance. This was a living history class for her after all.

"She'll come along with us." Kai told Lloyd, coming up to the small group. "You and Garmadon need to get going before someone realizes that you're sitting ducks in here."

"Got it." Lloyd agreed. He turned to Minerva.

"Whatever I did in the future to you, I hope it was done with a reason and that I am genuinely sorry for it." he told her.

"I know," came her response, "For three months straight you remind me of this. It's getting pretty annoying really."

Lloyd looked at her, and she smiled back in response. Lloyd smiled back, gave her a small hug, then left.

"Come on." Kai then told Minerva, "We're going to be leaving soon too."

"Alright." Minerva agreed, following Kai to the rest of the ninja and Nya.

. . .

"Do I get taller? Am I gonna be bald? Do I grow a mustache? Can you give me the winning lottery numbers for the rest of the month?"

Minerva found that she liked the Jay in the future; he was a lot more docile after twenty years of being beat down by his wife. The past Jay (present Jay, in some sense) wouldn't stop asking her about the dumbest and cliched things that would happen in the future.

"I can't tell you any of that." Minerva told Jay. "And you know it."

"Please?!" Jay asked like a little kid, almost getting down on one knee, "Just _one_ winning lottery number?"

"No." Minerva told him, staying firm. Jay recoiled.

"You're stubborn." he told her, pretending to snub her.

"I'm the daughter of Lloyd Garmadon, and almost all of my childhood was influenced by Kai. I'm stubborn whether I want to be or not." Minerva told him with a single, slow blink. Jay thought about this for a moment.

"Touché." he then said. Minerva gave a rather satisfied smile.

Kai (who had been overhearing the conversation) fell back at little to walk beside Minerva.

"What did you mean when you said that I influenced almost all of your childhood?" Kai asked.

"I can't tell you." Minerva said, using a different tone in her voice than the one she had used with Jay. She was refusing to look him in the eye too. It gave Kai a really unnerving feeling, and it frustrated him. Realizing that there was going to be a mood whiplash, Jay started to whistle innocently as he skipped ahead of Kai and Minerva.

"Tell me what happens." Kai told Minerva, a hint of desperation etched itself in his voice.

"I can't." Minerva told him. "Just having me here with you guys now is going to mess up the future I know. I can't tell anyone about what will happen to them, because someone might try to change it, and it would ruin the future."

Kai stopped walking and took Minerva by the shoulders.

"What happens to us!" he asked in a roar. Everyone stared at him.

"We'll... uh... catch up with you guys later." Cole said. "Just... watch out for danger, I guess."

And with that, Nya, Jay, Cole, and Zane got as far away from Kai and Minerva as they could. The duo were not alone, however, but they did not know it.

"What happens Minerva?" Kai asked again, this time a lot softer. But he was staring her down, which scared her.

"I can't..." she started to say.

"Please, just tell me." Kai begged. Minerva looked at him, then at the ground.

"In my time line," the girl started to say quietly, "Lloyd goes missing a few months after I'm born. No one knows where he goes or what happened to him; the only thing people know is that he placed me in your care before leaving. Years pass, and you are afraid to love me like your own daughter. You do love me, and you are very protective, but you never admit that you're my father.

"Then one day, I found evidence of where Lloyd could be, and I snuck out of the house to go find him because we had a very bad argument beforehand. You were terrified when you found out, and you got the ninja together to go out and find me. When we all caught up with each other, we saved Lloyd and you found that you were torn between giving me away."

"Why?" Kai asked.

"Because no matter how hard to tried to distance yourself, you were my father."

Kai let go of Minerva and took a step back.

"Is it true?" Kai asked her.

"You know it is." she said softly. "Don't you?"

Kai refused to look her in the eye, instead, he was silent.

"How long did it take?" he finally said, "For Lloyd to come back, that is."

"Fifteen years." she told him.

"And you're...?"

"Fifteen years... and three months."

"Geez..."

"Yeah, you say that a lot in the future too."

"Well isn't that sweet?" a voice said from near them. A second later, Pythor appeared in front of them. Kai instantly reacted by pulling out his Techno Blade with one hand, and taking a protective hold of Minerva with the other.

"I'm sure the Overlord would like to hear this story too." Pythor rasped. "Don't you think?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Let go of me!" Minerva declared, struggling to get out of the contraption Pythor had trapped her in. It was attached to a rather large siphon, while likewise attached to a holding tank for a rather vicious looking swarm of electrocobrai.

"Oh, she has spunk." the Digital Overlord said with glee from a monitor. "I like her."

"Leave her alone!" Kai thundered. He too had been captured with his Techno Blade locked away.

"Stupid ninja," the Digi-Lord hissed, "You should have known better than to separate with the rest of your pathetic little team. Now, your failed thinking will lead them all into a trap!"

"Leave him alone!" Minerva spat. Pythor sneered at her and flipped a switch, this agitated the captive electrocobrai and sent a jolt of energy to the contraption that held Minerva, effectively zapping her with raw energy.

"Pathetic little girl." the Digi-Lord hissed. "You can do nothing as long as you are my prisoner. While we wait though, you can tell me all about the future."

"I'm not telling you anything." Minerva sneered.

"You will." the Digi-Lord said darkly, Pythor taking the cue to zap her again with the electrocobrai. Kai had to admire the kid's persistence to not talk; the voltage being sent to her body must have been more than what a normal human could bear, and yet Minerva had yet to shed a tear.

"Tell me your secrets!" the Digi-Lord demanded.

"No!" Minerva screamed. Pythor reached for the lever, but was stopped by the Digi-Lord.

"Don't harm her again." the Digi-Lord demanded.

"Why?" Pythor, Kai, and Minerva asked at the same time, each with their own level of anger and confusion.

"We are not so different, child." Digi-Lord said in a low tone, almost softly.

"I'm nothing like you!" Minerva told the monitor.

"You know differently... don't you?" came the reply. Minerva looked at the monitor darkly.

"I will never be like you." the girl then said, this time a bit quieter.

"What happens to me in your universe, child?" the Digi-Lord asked.

"You die at the hands of Lloyd Garmadon and his friends." Minerva said, almost rubbing it in. "And peace reigns in Ninjago without interruption forever."

"Lies..." the Digi-Lord hissed. "And you know it. I will live on, do you think I can not see it?"

"Minerva..." Kai slowly said, "What is he talking about?"

"I live in you." the Digi-Lord told them, giving information that Minerva already knew. Information she hated. "You decide to live in Light, but you were born in the Darkness. You were born to rule Ninjago for me!"

The Digi-Lord rolled into a laugh as Minerva looked at the monitor, her body trembling in anger.

"Not as long as we can change the future!" someone said as they busted through the door. It was Lloyd, with Jay, Cole, and Zane closely behind.

"Lloyd!" Minerva and Kai said at the same time in relief.

"Wrong move ninja!" the Digi-Lord sneered. Immediately, the floor under Jay, Cole, and Zane became a cage that rose high into the air, leaving the ground below to reveal a pit of electrocobrai.

"Wow." Jay remarked. "Normally we would have fought a little before getting into a trap like this."

"Does it really matter?" Cole asked. "Those electrocobrai look a little hungry..."

"They are." Pythor said maliciously.

"You can't do that!" Minerva observed. Pythor looked at her.

"I can." he told her. "Just like how I can do this," and he flipped the switch on the contraption, making the agitation (and in junction, voltage) higher on the electrocobrai, and giving Minerva a much harder shock than the last time. This made her scream in pain; the pitch reaching a level that nearly broke everyone's eardrums.

"Leave her alone!" Lloyd instantly shouted. "She doesn't deserve this! She's never done anything to you!"

"Then choose Golden Ninja!" the Digi-Lord then said. "Either save your friends and watch her die, or save your daughter and give me your power. The choice is yours; but here's a hint, you're waiting for her in the future!"

"Save them!" Minerva shouted as well as she could, "I'm only a variable in this time line, but they're constants! You _can not_ lose them!"

For a moment, Lloyd stood where he was. Even if she wasn't technically his daughter yet, it still upset him to see in her so much pain.

"I don't want to lose you, not if I lose you in the future." he said bluntly

"But if you lose them, I won't _be_ in the future!" Minerva told him, practically spelling it out. Lloyd, understanding, nodded his head and quickly thought of a way to free the other ninja. Kai first, because he was closest.

"Stop them!" the Digi-Lord shouted as an army of Nindroids started to surround the area. "I will have the Golden Ninja's power!"

"So... you have a plan to get them out, right?" Kai asked as he and Lloyd ended up back to back as the Nindroids got closer.

"As long as you have a plan to free Minerva." Lloyd said back.

"Well then, let's go down with a fight." Kai then decided.

"Fair enough for me!" Lloyd decided before the duo started to attack the Nindroids.


	5. Chapter 5

"Please tell me we're not just gonna sit here while they get to fight." Cole lamented, watching Kai and Lloyd take down the Nindroids with various results.

"Of course not." Zane said in a matter-of-fact way. "This trap is very old and badly cared for. All we need to do is find the most rusted bar, and saw it away."

"Well that's a good idea Zane," Jay started, "If we had something to cut with!"

Underneath of them, Kai and Lloyd were losing the fight, but they could hear Jay's snark loud and clear. Realizing a solution, Kai took down a Nindroid with a sword and tossed the weapon up toward the cage. Apparently, when the sword got into the cage, it nearly hit someone. Judging by the surprise squeal.

"Thanks." Jay said flatly, poking his head down to look at Kai.

"Sorry." Kai shrugged, almost feeling apologetic.

Meanwhile, in her imprisonment, Minerva was trying to escape as well.

"Come on..." she said to herself, trying to concentrate hard, "Stupid powers never work when I need 'em..."

"You're not going to do anything." Pythor sneered at her, watching her attempts.

"Yesteryear's technology can't hold me back, and you know it!" Minerva said as the pit of electrocobrai covered up with a platform that dissolved into appearance. The cage that held Zane, Cole, and Jay snapped away from its suspension and landed on top of several Nindroids that were heading toward Kai and Lloyd. The cage fell to pieces upon impact, and it was revealed that Jay had the sword that Kai had thrown to them. It appeared that he was in the process of trying to saw away a bar that was no longer there.

"I didn't do it!" Jay declared, hiding the sword behind his back. With this idea, everyone turned to look at Minerva, who (although still trapped) was smirking with pride. In the right light or if one could get a closer inspection of her, she looked dangerous.

"You know," Cole remarked, "That was a lot easier than usual."

"Such... power..." the Digi-Lord said softly with a tone in his voice that irked Kai and Lloyd's nerves alike and sent a chill up Minerva's spine.

Pythor, however did not like this, and flipped the switch for Minerva to be electrocuted by the electrocobrai. The voltage this time was stronger than what it ever had been, even the lights in the room flickered from the pure, raw power of the electrocobrai.

"What are you doing?!" the Digi-Lord thundered to Pythor.

"He's about to be toast!" Lloyd declared before taking a dive toward Pythor. The Serpentine did not flinch as the Gold Ninja started to throw blows.

"Why are you fighting?" Pythor sneered. "She isn't yours."

"That may be true," Lloyd told the Serpentine, "But she's still family!"

"Fool." Pythor said as Lloyd threw a punch at him, but the Serpentine faded into invisibility, and Lloyd ended up punching the control panel that held Minerva. Fortunately, it was the button that released her from the contraption. She fell out, ungracefully and almost lifelessly. Kai immediately ran over to catch her, Lloyd was at their side only moments after.

Minerva looked from Kai to Lloyd.

"My heroes." she said in a dull tone, but attempting to sound playful, before passing out in Kai's arms.

"Get out." the Digi-Lord hissed. "Before I change my mind. Get... out!"

"No need to tell us twice!" Jay declared as the group quickly headed out. With the ninja gone, Pythor reappeared.

"What were you thinking?!" the Digi-Lord asked the Serpentine in absolute fury.

"How does it matter to you?" Pythor asked. "She failed you, in the present and in the future."

"No." the Digi-Lord hissed. "Her potential is still raw... in tact... unopened... So beautiful in its destruction..."

"You'll never have it." Pythor told the monitor. "And you know it."

The Digi-Lord growled at the Serpentine, but said nothing else.


	6. Chapter 6

Safe once again at Borg Tower for now, Minerva rested on the ground. Lloyd sat next to her, gently stroking the top of her head lovingly.

"To think," he said, almost to himself, speaking a thought, "She's my daughter."

"Could be your daughter." PIXAL interjected. "The future that she was raised in may not have happened, if she even exists now after the events that took fold yesterday. Perhaps this is why she has not woken up yet although she is perfectly stable condition. If the time line has been altered, so have her memories, personality, possibly even her physical appearance. By resting, her body could be trying to 'reassemble' itself, in a matter of speaking, so that it is in accordance to the new time line we created. With that said, she may never wake up if the time line is radically different from the one she came from."

"So, even through all that trouble, there's still a chance that Minerva may never exist?" Kai asked.

"Exactly." PIXAL agreed.

"Well..." Jay spoke up, "She hasn't disappeared yet like they do in those time travel movies when the future's been altered. Maybe she still will."

"The probability is still rather high for her lack of existence though." Zane told him. With this thought, everyone turned to look at Minerva again. She was slowly showing signs of waking up. Lloyd took a step back from her and waited.

"Daddy..." the girl groaned. "My head hurts so much... I feel like I got zapped by a million volts or something."

"Well... you kinda did." Lloyd told her. Suddenly, Minerva's eyes flew open and she stared at Lloyd with wide eyes, as if he wasn't the one she expected to talk. For a second, she looked at him then gave him a hug.

"I miss you." she whispered.

"You know you're still in the past, right?" Lloyd asked her, feeling a bit confused. Minerva looked at him, realized what she had said, then nodded sadly.

"But you can go home now." Cyrus spoke up. "PIXAL and I finished the time machine while you were sleeping."

Minerva nodded and started to stand up with Lloyd's help. She turned to face the ninja. She smiled at them, admiring that none of them yet had gray (or graying) hair. Except for Zane and PIXAL, they never really changed.

"Before I go," she decided, "I think I owe everyone a little fortune telling session."

No one openly objected, so she walked to Nya first.

"In my time line, you have a boy." Minerva told Nya. "You name him after Lloyd."

Nya thought about this as Minerva went to Garmadon next.

"You die before I'm born." she told her grandfather. "But your legacy is a great one; there isn't one history book in my time line that doesn't have your struggle of Light and Darkness in it. It's inspirational, and it helps me understand that good and evil can be a single entity, while likewise being two separate beings."

Garmadon smiled and nodded: accepting this fate if it were to come. Minerva then went to Cole.

"You help your father out a lot when he gets older in my time line." the girl said. "It gives me a sense of family closeness, that no matter how much we make each other mad or how distant we get, we're still there for each other in the end."

Cole nodded, and Minerva went to Jay. She smiled at him.

"The wife you marry beats you down... a lot. But the love you two share is so unique, and you're both so happy that it radiates everywhere you two go together."

Jay smiled at this a bit as Minerva went to Zane and PIXAL.

"Alice really likes having you guys as parental figures." she told them. "Her name is short for 'Artificial Life In a Child's Ethnic' and she's very excitable and obnoxiously curious. It gets annoying sometimes, I know it's all in good meaning, she's still my friend by the end of the day."

Zane and PIXAL smiled, but refused to look at each other, and gave Minerva their approval. This was when Minerva turned her attention to Lloyd. He smiled at her, ready to accept whatever fate could fall on him in her time line. Minerva took a deep breath in before talking.

"You leave for a long time." Minerva said to him. "But when you come back, we have a super big party just for you, and half of the partygoers don't even remember it the next day. I've got, like, a whole hard drive of blackmail that I may never use. I told someone rather close to me about it, and they said I take up after you quite nicely."

Lloyd smiled a bit and Minerva smiled back at him in laughter. Then, finally, she turned to Kai.

"And you..." she started.

"If we cross paths like the Overlord said, I'm not going easy on you." Kai interjected. "If what he said was true, then I'll do everything to make sure you're safe. Even if you feel that it drives you nuts. If not, I'll still be there to keep you safe, even when I'm not with you directly."

Minerva smiled at him.

"I know," she said, "Because you always will."

"Good bye." she then told them all as she got in the machine. "See you in the future!"

"Wait!" Zane quickly said before Cyrus threw the switch. "How would we know you made it back safely?"

Minerva smiled.

"I'll remind you." she assured them, giving Cyrus the cue to throw the switch. In a sudden flash of bright light, she was gone.

But the Overlord's laugh filled the room. Everyone looked around. There was no way he was in here, no way at all.

"You fool; she will never exist in this universe!"

Lloyd's eyes snapped open. Wearily, he looked up at the display panel.

Fifty percent of the golden energy was drained from his body at this point, according to the display. He groaned, not only in pain, but in sick realization. The Overlord had planted a false memory (or was it a dream?) into him while the conversion between Lloyd's energy and the Overlord's new body was taking fold.

"Why?!" Lloyd called out to no one. "Why are you doing this? What do you gain from doing this to me?!"

The only answer was an echoing laugh of the Overlord. Lloyd sank to his feet in the chamber the Overlord was keeping him in. If the evil entity could make Lloyd hallucinate rather lucidly when only half of his golden energy was gone, what would happen if the Overlord succeeded in taking all of his energy?


End file.
